How CS2 Majors work: invites, Swiss stages and playoffs
How a Counter-Strike 2 Major is built: 32 teams invited through the Valve Regional Standings, three Swiss stages, map vetoes and an eight-team playoff.
Majors are the Counter-Strike tournaments that follow Valve’s Major rules. Valve publishes the rules every Major has to follow in its Major Supplemental Rulebook on GitHub. The foreword sets the goal: “The goal of the Major is to bring together the best Counter-Strike players in the world to a LAN setting, provide them an opportunity to claim their title, and to demonstrate to millions of CS players around the world just how high the Counter-Strike skill ceiling is.”
The rulebook covers only the rules Valve wants to be the same at every Major; the rest comes from each tournament organizer. This guide follows the version on GitHub, last updated on Oct. 6, 2026. The next Major is PGL Major Singapore 2026.
32 teams, all invited
A Major has 32 teams, and all of them are invited from the Valve Regional Standings (VRS):
- 16 teams to Stage 1
- eight teams to Stage 2
- eight teams to Stage 3
The VRS has three regions: Europe, the Americas and Asia. A team belongs to the region of most of its players. In a tie, it goes to the region with more teams at the Major: Europe first, then the Americas, then Asia. Since Oct. 6, 2026, a roster can get a region only “if they did not appear in any other region’s VRS list in the preceding three calendar months.”
How many invitations each region gets depends on the previous Major. A region receives one Stage 2 invitation for each of its teams that reached Stage 3 last time, and one Stage 3 invitation for each of its teams that reached the playoffs.
Invitations go to Stage 3 teams first, then Stage 2, then Stage 1. If a team declines or no longer has the invited roster, the next-highest ranked team takes its place. When no ranked team is left, the remaining places go to a last-chance regional qualifier.
Rosters
The five invited players are the lineup that must be registered. A team can add one coach and one substitute. The substitute must not change the team’s region if they replace a player, and the coach and the substitute can be the same person.
Swiss stages
Each of the three stages has 16 teams and uses the Swiss system:
- teams play opponents with the same win-loss record;
- three wins advance, three losses eliminate;
- matches that decide advancement or elimination are best of three, all others best of one;
- where possible, teams do not meet the same opponent twice in a stage.
Every stage sends eight teams through, with records of 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2. The other eight go out. In Stages 2 and 3, the eight teams that came through join eight teams invited straight to that stage.
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
After round 5
best of onebest of threeadvanceeliminated
Seeding
Before the event, all 32 teams are sorted by their global VRS standing. Stage 1 uses this seed for every team. In Stages 2 and 3, the directly invited teams are seeds 1-8 and the teams that came through are seeds 9-16.
Round 1 pairs seed 1 with seed 9, seed 2 with seed 10 and so on down to seed 8 against seed 16. After that, teams are ranked by their win-loss record, then by their Difficulty Score, then by their seed at the start of the stage.
The Difficulty Score, also called Buchholz, is the sum of wins minus losses of every opponent a team has faced so far. Valve’s example: if a team’s opponents are 2-0 and 1-1, its score is 3 − 1 = 2. Between two teams with the same record, the one that faced stronger opponents ranks higher.
Playoffs
The top eight teams from Stage 3 play a single-elimination bracket, seeded by where they finished in Stage 3:
- one half: 1 vs. 8 and 4 vs. 5;
- other half: 2 vs. 7 and 3 vs. 6.
The rulebook sets playoff matches as best of three. For Singapore, PGL has announced a best-of-five grand final.
Map veto
Matches are played on the up-to-date versions of the maps in the Active Duty map pool. Before every match, the higher seed chooses to be Team A or Team B.
Best of one:
- Team A removes two maps.
- Team B removes three maps.
- Team A removes one map.
- Team B chooses the starting side on the map that is left.
Best of three:
- Team A removes one map, then Team B removes one map.
- Team A picks map 1, and Team B chooses the starting side.
- Team B picks map 2, and Team A chooses the starting side.
- Team B removes one map, then Team A removes one map.
- The last map is map 3, and Team B chooses the starting side.
Final standings
Final places are decided by playoff position first. Teams that went out earlier are ranked by their Stage 3 record and Difficulty Score, then Stage 2, then Stage 1 and finally by their seed before the event.
VAC bans
The rulebook keeps players with a VAC ban in Counter-Strike out of the Major and its qualifiers. A player with a VAC ban on any of their accounts can only take part with written approval from Valve.
FAQ
How many teams play at a CS2 Major?
- All of them are invited from the Valve Regional Standings: 16 to Stage 1, eight to Stage 2 and eight to Stage 3.
How does the Swiss stage work?
Teams play opponents with the same win-loss record. Three wins advance and three losses eliminate; matches that decide advancement or elimination are best of three, all others best of one.
What is the Difficulty Score?
Also called Buchholz, it is the sum of wins minus losses of every opponent a team has faced so far. It ranks teams that have the same record.
Are Major playoff matches best of three?
The rulebook sets playoff matches as best of three. For Singapore, PGL has announced a best-of-five grand final.
Can a player with a VAC ban play at a Major?
Only with written approval from Valve. The rulebook keeps players with a VAC ban in Counter-Strike out of the Major and its qualifiers.